I (22M) broke up with my girlfriend (21F) over a year ago now and it haunts me to this day. She was the most caring, loving and loyal person I had ever met. We were crazy in love with each other for the entirety of our 1.5 year relationship.

However, eventually the honeymoon phase began to wear off and I slightly questioned my feelings. I knew that I loved her but many of the feelings of crazy excitement had worn off. I wish I had known back then what I know now. It was my first true relationship and first true love after all. It being my first relationship, I guess I just couldn’t see how good I had it. Being my stupid self, I ended it and it devastated her. For some reason, I never really processed my emotions for a good while until it finally hit me about 6 months ago. And at that point, it was far too late to get back together (trust me, I tried). I had hurt her way too much in the breakup for her to trust me again.

This feels like something I may end up regretting for the rest of my life. When I tell you she was an absolute angel to me in every way, I mean it. After all the pain I’ve put her through, she is finally happy again which brings me a little bit of peace. She more than anyone deserves to be happy after what happened.

I know deep down within me though that I will likely never find someone as great as her again. Hoping for the day the pain becomes more bearable.

Any tips or advice on how to handle the regret? To handle the regret of knowing you had the best relationship and lost it over nothing?